Appalachian Trials by Zach Davis review

It’s not often we see a Good Badger execute somersaults. But one, who chose to share his antics on the Appalachian Trail, did.  In the recently published,  Appalachian Trials: a psychological & emotional guide to successfully hike the Appalachian Trail, Zach Davis, the owner of the trail name, Good Badger, rolls from funny and glib to serious and profound, proving to be a complex person, as many are who attempt the AT and make it. Hikers and their families are lucky he chose to write such a book, an honest and astute take on the Appalachia Trail, and a must read for those who are currently, or will in the future, find themselves walking the 2,000 odd miles form Georgia to Maine. 

Zach’s not talking off the cuff but from cataloging both the inner and outer experience. His personal stories back up his psychological insights and mental hygiene. As Zach slogged the miles in the rain, climbed the rocky outposts, endured the Green Tunnel he took note of the AT’s effects on hikers both physically and mentally. He endured his own set of unusual trials while hiking, from being rejected for an important job he hoped to start after his hike, to contracting a debilitating illness while on the trail, which was not diagnosed until he was off the trail. 

Published on the heels of a number of memoirs and some incredible guide books, this is may very well become one of the most important books in the hikers prep box, simple because it addresses what Zach believes, to be the main reason hikers make it all the way.  Mental attitude. Appalachian Trials may prove even more important than choice of equipment or how many maps a hiker carries, because it prepares the long distance backpacker for what the mind goes through while pushing the body to such limits and how important the right frame of mind can be when confronting the obstacles of the self, including the interaction with society before and after the journey and most importantly each individual’s purpose and motivations for such a challenge.

Zach’s approach, reminds me of how crucial Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell viewed the role of quests, initiations and challenges in the invocation and development of the “hero” or the authentic individual, as Jung called it.

On those mountains, 100s of them, one must come to know himself inside and out without the trappings of society to protect them, and therefore must learn to rely on their own inner resources and strengths.  Sure there’s times each hiker curses the trail, but more times than most, it’s the opportunity to discover an inner ally. Out on the trail everyone is reduced to their absolute center – there’s no way to be fake to impress or best someone. Personas and habits we adopt to comply with society’s expectations slip away with the miles until every hiker comes to know their true self better than ever imagined. 

So far this review may make Appalachian Trials sound like a complicated book.  Quite the opposite. Throughout his book, Zach employs user friendly analogies anyone can relate to and offers solutions, methods, and techniques to better prepare both the hiker and the worried family back home as to what may, can and should happen while going through such an extreme experience for four to six months.

It’s practical, readable and most of all insightful, without being preachy or pretentious.  Zach’s humor, off beat, quirky and often self-deprecating proves this is a guy who can take himself seriously when he has to, but more often than not, will just as soon laugh at his foibles. He’s taught himself to be intuitively aware when of when it’s time to find a way around a mental mountain with the potential to come crashing down and therefore avoids or survives each setback. 

But Zach doesn’t stop there, he goes on to warn and suggest measures to deal with the post-trail let down, the adjustment back into society and how to use the new awareness gained from this pivotal life journey to found a meaningful and enriched lifestyle.

 My son Jeff or Loner, as he’s known on the trail, started his thru-hike on April 7, 2012 on the approach trial at Amicalola Falls. As a family member of an AT thru-hiker, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this book. Once Jeff left, I found Zach’s Good Badger blog and read every word, hungry for more. Appalachian Trials delivered even more than I’d hoped.

Throughout Appalachian Trials, Zach makes user friendly analogies anyone can relate to and offers solutions, methods, techniques to better prepare both the hiker and the worried family back home as to what may, can and should happen while going through such an extreme experience for four to six months. It helps us understand why our family member or friends is taking on such a feat and what they go through en route, in addition to offering us ways we can offer them some advice without becoming obsessively worried.

While reading Appalachian Trials, I felt like I was sitting in a room with Zach, a large window to our sides, offering a panoramic view of the woods on a beautiful day, that’s how the conversational style of this book engages the reader.  I felt like I came to know Zach, as well a man, who while often exhibiting his off-kilter sense of humor, also, at the same time offered a thoughtful, insightful view not just of the AT but also of our society’s culture and how easy it is to forget one’s true self trying to measure up to outer standards.  On the AT, it’s just the hiker and nature, bottom line.  More than just a hiker’s backpack is pared down to the core necessities.   

I think this book is also a valuable resource and comfort to family and friends of long distance hikers since it offers concrete steps to take at all stages of such a life-altering journey. Of which there are more than the hiker expects: from the prep through the early trail anxieties to the endorphin highs spurned on by exercise and small successes, through the periods of boredom and possible depression during Virginia’s 550 mile Green Tunnel, where as Zach explains, the honeymoon stage is over.  Zach offers ways the thru-hiker can deal -   all the way to the exhausting, emotional and exhilarating summit of Mt. Katadhin.
 The writing in Appalachian Trials appears to be an effortless task on Zach’s part, so easily do we read it and understand his observations and advice. But, as an editor, I know differently. Pay attention to a normal conversation and you’ll hear how to rambles, is tangential, wanders off course, sometimes to never veer back, stops and starts, and sometimes ends abruptly without flow. Zach put more time and effort in completing this book than is evident on the surface, like taking a bad day on the trail with its missteps and lost footing, and using the time in the shelter of an evening to recall it with all its wonders and remarkable lessons intact.   

That’s the landscape of this book, the path Zach leads you on, not only on the Appalachian Trail but also in life.

e-mail from the Good Badger

A while back I posted a letter on my blog which I had e-mailed to Zach Davis, 2011 thru-hiker and author of the book, Appalachian Trials: A Psychological and Emotional Guide To Thru-Hike the Appalachian Trail (Volume 1).
My request asked him to include my blog in his list of thru-hiker blogs - an unlikely request, I considered, since I'm not a thru hiker just the mom of one, Loner.   And he did indeed include my blog on his list which has garnered a number of readers - hopefully other family members too (I've heard from a number of mothers of AT hikers since starting this blog even from outside the United States.  In addition, in my email to Zach, I whined a bit about my worries - that was early in Loner's trip and I was a panicky mom, knowing Zach's mother had worried too and he'd dealt with it. 
On the same day I sent my email, shortly afterwards Zach wrote me back. I didn't want to publish his letter on my blog until after I had his permission, which he was gracious to give.

"Hi Gail:
Thank you so much for the thoughtful and poetically crafted e-mail.  It's safe to say that yours is the e-mail of the month. 

First off, don't stress your son being on the trail right now.  I understand how it can be terrifying, but I promise you, your son is safer and happier than he would be in the daily rigors of what is often referred to as the grind. 

In addition to adding your blog to the 2012 thru-hikers list (which I will be doing as soon as I hit the "send" button), would you have any interest in writing a review of the book from the perspective of a parent on the Good Badger?  Appalachian Trials was written largely with you, the parent, in mind, but me saying that is less effective than it coming from the perspective of an actual parent.  Assuming you enjoy and find value out of the book, I would be honored for your review on my website, which of course would include a link back to yours.  I guarantee that will drive a lot more interest than a link buried in a lengthy list of others. 

If not, no problem, I just wanted to gauge your interest.I apologize, I'm at a geek conference in San Francisco right now (my new home), for the remainder of the weekend, so won't be able to respond to your e-mail in the depth that I would like to right now.  I'm currently getting yelled at by geeks :\

Happy hiking,ZACH DAVIS"

Now, I've read Appalachian Trials twice and have started the review, not quite finished which I'll send to him soon, as well as post it here, on Amazon, on Goodreads, etc.  

Just once again, I'm discovering what a tight-knit, helpful, friendly and encouraging community revolves around the AT.  I've already seen in my son's videos how surprised he is at the diversity and authenticity of the thru-hikers he's shared the trail with, and now we learn it extends years, miles and further out people wise - even the family members of AT hikers feel like part of the AT family. One of the lessons to take from this whole experience is a renewed faith in humanity which can sometimes be lost in our day to day shuffle.

Begging to a Good Badger

Okay, time to get real.  Thank the gods, my son, Jeff who is now slogging his way somewhere in North Carolina (2nd state out of 14) close to Tennessee on the AT Trail, won't read this blog. He'd be appalled and embarrassed.  Before and even after I received Jeff's 3 recent sets of emails, I've been taking a subway up from deep within the subconscious, destination:  Panic City.
Parents of AT thru-hikers - I want you to know you are not alone.  When I dropped my son off on April 7th at the start of the AT, I was excited and thrilled for him. I have ultimate confidence in him as a man who knows the outdoors and nature, and one who has gone off for hikes of 80 miles or more.
And then he waved good by.  On the way home, I held myself together and attempted to drive serenely through the countryside while my granddaughter fell happily into a Dramamine doze. For three hours. Finally, I couldn't hold it together anymore. I couldn't maintain serene. Too many thoughts raced through my head quicker than the rapids on the Nantahala River. Thinking. Realizing. My son is gone for four to five months in the American wilderness!
I started wigging out and did so the entire next week. On my solo drives during work to see my clients, volume of cascaded down my cheeks, enough to rival Amicalola Falls.
 Where was he?  Would I ever see him again? Is he hurt? Were his socks wet? His feet cold?  Did he have blisters? Did he bring band aids? Did his knee and ankle hurt?  Did he have enough food in that ridiculously tiny backpack?
I wanted to picture what he was doing. Where did he sleep - hammock or shelter? Who did he meet?  What are their trail names?  Has he met any Trail Angels?  Has he met any crazy people?  Did a herd of wild boars block the path so he couldn't see the first great mountaintop vista on the trail? Did a a momma bear and her two laughing cubs chase him down a rocky slope calculatingly slathered with tree roots by some cruel  act of nature to trip him up and send him rolling down the equivalent of the combined heights of every skyscraper in downtown Greenville, SC x5? Whew! Time to take a breath.

So what did I do?  I went to Zach Davis (Class of 2011 AT Thru-hiker) The Good Badger's  blog and got many hours of free therapy!   Let me tell you, this guy can make you laugh. And then I started writing this blog.
With the manic rush of the thought of Zach's book, Appalachian Trials, winging its way to me from Amazon,  I got bold and begged The Good Badger (Zach Davis) to let me crash his list of AT Thru-Hikers on the blog list on his website so all those frantic parents, brothers, sisters, kids out there could feel they are not alone and maybe even get a little comfort.
My daughter, Beth would call me "Cheeky mom," my granddaughter would applaud and so  I took the risk.
Here's my email to Zach but with the typos fixed because in my nervousness and near panic for aid from someone who had to counsel his own mom over and over, I couldn't type straight.

4/14/12
Hi Zach:

My son, Jeff Gray, aka Loner, started the AT Trail on April 7, 2012 from Georgia. So of course, I've been reading blog after blog to extinguish my angst (you can take the woman out of the goth world- but can't take the angst out of the woman) and lo and behold, by some serendipitous form of synchronicity, I stumbled (as in my technique for hiking up  only 1/8 of a mile up the Amicalola Falls Trail) on your wonderful, funny, irreverent, honest, yet amazingly most reassuring blog on the AT I've read.
 Reading your blog is like watching my son race when he was a dirt track race car driver.  I sit there white-knuckled, my heart beating in panic, my lungs refusing to suck in air - but I keep reading  or watching (as in the case of your videos) because I have to know what happens.  Sure you scare the hell out of me - (your poor, saintly mother! - throwing your poles up rock slopes near the Lehigh River in PA, (how you must have made your mother suffer, not knowing  the outcome when you posted that photo on Rolling Rocks) sleeping with bear breath outside your shelter, watching Whoop nearly buy a water-logged ticket to Nirvana in that river ford that didn't even lead to the Captain's! 
But you made it - you freakin' made it.  And that's what keeps me sane. 
 I've spent the past 20 odds hours with massively huge eye balls reading faster than the ping pong balls on the Chinese Olympic team to take in every word of your adventure, and then glutton that I am, I had to have your book, ASAP and begged Amazon to send it post haste before I succumb to the South Carolina vapors with worry about my eldest child.
  I need your book for my survival, which now may be more at risk than my son's due to mental fragmentation and nightmares.
Yes, sorry, you are now being smothered by yet another frantic mother, as if one wasn't enough, but at least you know the score from the outside in.
What got me was your psychological approach.  Yeah,. I've read stuff on the the facts, the heights, the miles, all the numbers, and while I admit I dumbed out on the expedition gear reports, I am devouring your psych approach. Since I have worked in the psych business 18 out of my 46 year working life and currently work as a rehab support specialist with individuals with traumatic brain injuries, you blog and book are just the prescription for mental health I need. As it will also help my daughter, Beth, Jeff''s 32 year old sister, who works as a nurse on a floor for head and spinal cord injuries and has been having panic attacks.
 I'm a Jungian and interested in the inner psyche so I get your drift, big time. Your post on the sensory deprivation tank brought back memories, as I was once the woman who put people in the tank, at a New Age type psychiatrist's office  who hired me because I was a professional astrologer part time.  Our tank was ivory colored and round so we called it "The Egg" and found it was therapeutic for schizophrenics. Also, thanks so much for your post on Good Badger, "Bears and Bullshit" - luckily Jeff agreed with all of your concepts before he left.  But we need to hear it over and over so as not to be sucked in by the system, the Matrix, whatever you call it.

We, as a family, need this book - as I imagine most families do.  So I will plan to write a review on my blog for other AT families who go through the roller coaster ride (albeit at lower heights and with less vertigo) than their AT progeny.   
I'll keep this brief and leave all the remarks and glowing compliments of Appalachian Trials (brilliant title, by the way - you'll get sales just from folks who mistype trails ) ) for the review. 
http://carolinaatmom.blogspot.com/

And guess what else you've done? In my post dropping off son on AT Trail misery, you've given me the therapeutic answer to all my nightmares, suffering and crying jags - writing!  It is you I have to thank for the idea of writing a blog and thus exorcising or exercising all the demons let loose in my brain by the many photos and stories of BEARs and MURDER and thru and section hikers alike just lying down to DIE on the trial after being incapacitated by heat exhaustion, hypothermia, or that one last horrid little rolling rock which planted them head first on another larger and not rolling rock - thus causing traumatic brain injury - about which I know way too much.
 So I wondered would it be out of place to add an AT blog on your 2012 Appalachian Trail Hiker page from the perspective of the mom?  I will be cataloging a lot of my son's trip as well, since at the moment he has hundreds of photos ad lots videos despite being 6 days into his hike, but he is a minimalist, no phone, no computer, no editing programs (he's an indie film maker).  Here's my blog so far - I'm going to review Bill Bryson's book, "A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail" hopefully this weekend, so that might give you a clue as to my reviewing skills.  Over the years, as an author and photojournalist, I've written hundreds of book reviews, most recently a slew of books about Carl Jung on my personal blog, The Shaman Papers.   http://theshamanpapers.blogspot.com/

By the way, I'm an author, small press publisher and editor as well.  Less now, than before the recession when I had to put my small press on hiatus and get a real world working job. 

Let me know if I can be added to the list without treading on AT thru-hiker and section-hiker toes, which I know are already painfully assaulted by rocks and climbing. And maybe when you're not too slammed there in San Diego with work, I can get to do an interview with you from your author's perspective as well.  
So far, I've limited my hysteria to this single email to you - knowing you can handle it with aplomb and healthy witty sarcasm, but I'm sure suppressed  aspects of hysteria will creep up like that bear in your shelter throughout my blog, or maybe just erupt, like the first time you opened your wonderfully full and downy, snug and warm sleeping bag, only to discover, this capability is OFFERED for a once and only one time trail-side experience.  

I even forgot to sign the e-mail.  How imbecilic is that?  I'll claim Sometimer's disease.  I refuse to admit to Alzheimer's just yet. 

Emotions, Books, Jeff aka Loner on the AT

It's funny, Jeff would probably have a fit if he knew I was writing this blog, but I am a writer - that's how I deal with my emotions and what life throws at me. Jeff is a very humble guy and probably won't tell anyone about his interesting life as he hikes the AT.  He's a unique guy with a deep soul, and although mostly English, Irish, Polish,Russian and Italian, he's profoundly connected to his Algonquin Indian roots which date back to his great-great grandfather from Gray Maine.

 And while I was just tremendously excited for Jeff as he prepared to leave, it didn't hit me until a day later how scared I was and how bittersweet it was to see him wave on that switchback trail up to Amicalola Falls.  I wondered if I would ever see him again, knowing folks have died on the trail.  But I couldn't break down there because my granddaughter Kendall (9 years old) was standing there beside me.
So I broke down the next week - all week - crying jags as I drove from one client to the next in my job as a rehab support specialist for adults with traumatic brain injuries.  I had nightmares at night but made myself do research.  So now, I've read tons of AT thru hiker blogs, read A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson and am reading,  AWOL on the Appalachian Trail, by   David Miller, and have ordered from Amazon, Zach Davis, Appalachian Trials, the psychological approach to making the trail and from reading his funny yet honest blog on his Good Badger website.

Jeff leaves for AT Trail

On April 7th, the day before Easter, Kendall, my granddaughter and I dropped off my son, Jeffrey for his 2,100 plus mile hike of the Appalachian Trail (AT) which runs from Amicalola Falls State Park in Georgia to Kathadin Mtn in Maine.
My goal for this blog is to give the perspective from the family.  Mine, as his mom, as well as from his sister Beth, and her nine year-old daughter, Kendall.  I needed to find something from a family's view, as we wonder and worry and gleam with pride.  But since I haven't yet, and since my greatest therapy is writing, I'm going to start this blog in the hopes that perhaps it may offer some insight to families and AT hikers, whether section or thru, as to what goes on not only on the AT trail but also behind the scenes back at home.  And also to offer some facts and info, some personal excitement and anguish, as well as to tell a tale to folks who have known nothing about the Appalachian Trail until now.
Jeff''s expecting to be on the trail four to five months and has been preparing for over 8 months.  He carries a 13 weight pack, much smaller than most.  Some people try carrying 45 lb. packs but end up tossing a good bit of either gear or food, because the AT Trail is a ridge trail, meaning that it connects mountains and mountain ridges.
The night before, Jeff, Kendall, and I  enjoyed a "last supper" at Monterey's, our favorite Mexican restaurant near our house, since he won't be eating hot food for a while.
Then on the three hour drive from Greenville, SC to Amicalola Falls State Park,we stopped close to the park at the most posh Chik-Fil-A I've ever been in. It's in a newly developed upscale section of Dawson and the restaurant was huge and packed, had flowers on each table, servers refilling the tea and was one of the best fast-food experiences we've ever encountered.  What a great send off for Jeff - a Chick-Fil-A meal topped with a massive and cheap ice cream cone.
 When  we reached the entrance,  he weighed his pack and signed in as thru-hiker no #801 at the very nice visitor's center. So that means over 800 thru-hikers have started from the Georgia end since March 1st when the trail opens.

We were shocked at  how packed the entrance was with day-trippers and picnickers. We had to get in line in our car to pay our $5.00 car parking fee to get into the park and then drive around before finding one of the rare remaining parking places.Lots of families of all nationalities were cooking out, having Easter Egg hunts, playing badminton and hiking.  It was bizarre.  We only saw two other AT thru-hikers at the visitors center and then when we left, Kendall and I saw a van with three packs on top.  The ranger told Jeff, 20 thru hikers had taken off that same day so he's probably already met some of them by now.  And with those three signing in about 3:30. that may make about 25 for the day. I had expected a quiet, serious and rather sacred send off and I couldn't quite wrap my head around all the colorful frivolity and activity. We spent time there so at the center so Kendall could enjoy it.  They have two great displays of all the wild animals he might meet on the trail, one a daytime display and the other a night time scene.  It's informative to be able to gauge the size of the actual as opposed to imagined size of the black bears, wolves, bobcats, foxes etc. prevalent in these woods.  The first Mountain, Springer Mtn. is 3782 ft. high in the Chattahoochee National Forest, not the tallest of the trail, but still a hefty height.  He has already reached it, I imagine.  She bought an adorable owl purse (Jeff gave her a lifelike  stuffed owl from here for Christmas) and she did the machine where you stamped a penny. Kendall made one with the waterfall scene for herself and one for Jeff with the hiker scene.

Then we set off on the trail walking through the stone archway, which features the southern terminus - the beginning or ending blue blaze side trail which is described as an arduous 8 mile hike which officially leads to the AT signified by the white blazes on the trees.  Jeff wanted us to hike with him on the mile trail to see the majestic Amicalola Falls,which tumble down 729 feet over the mountainside. But unfortunately Kendall was in flip flops and had to walk with her feet stretched out in a Daffy Duck V so as not to slide out of her shoes and go careening in backward somersaults bowling over large families of East Indians, Orientals, Hispanics and Anglo Saxons families causing them in turn to execute backward somersaults, flips and full gainers  resulting in avalanche of international proportions. In addition, to put an out of kilter spin on it, she'd had to take Dramamine to survive the road trip due to her tendency to extreme car sickness so, poor thing she was half out of it as well.  And she's a city girl, unlike her mom, Beth, (pictured left at age 5 or 6) who I introduced to hiking when she was five.
And then I was even worse. Here I was walking bent in half in what felt like a trail set at a 90 degree angle. My size six feet with 61 years old toes are cursed with arthritis so my Ozzie Osborne shuffle could barely hold up my  nonathletic pear-shaped body which has filled out to require larger feet requiring monkey-like dexterity. 
No way could I attempt the first first 175 wooden steps, let alone the next 475, heaving chest and hypternsion pounding brow warned me!  Although at one time I hiked with Jeff and my daughter Beth separately or us all together in the Blue Ridge Mtns at Oil Camp Creek Road and Jones Gap along Persimmon Ridge every weekend for years in the 80's and 90's. (me back then photo right)

 The Amicalola Trail in Dawson County is rated as a D level hiking trail, on Pam and Randy Golden's, Trail Masters Scale.  Difficult - these trails can have steep section with treacherous footing, rock strewn sections, or heavily tree-rooted paths.   Yeah, steep sections okay - now add another 475 steps, guys.
The Goldens have more than 25 years of hiking experience and have a great Internet site on Georgia hiking, with reviews, ratings, photos and directions for each site, plus important info such as visitors center, lodging, picnic areas and trail features such as views, waterfalls etc.  For anyone even considering hiking a section or thru hike on the AT, their site will offer a ton of info to help you prepare for the Georgia section, which has been called the third most difficult of the 14 states on the AT after Maine and Massachusetts. 
The Amicalola Trail  is beautiful trail starting at a reservoir. It runs alongside the Amicalola River with many small waterfalls. But then it suddenly ascends  up at a steep angle where I had to walk  bent over in half to make it up the incline.
Many AT hikers don't start on this entrance side trail, which they cite as being a really rough hike to start the trail with it's 242 wooden steps perched at a steep angle on the rock face. Instead they get a ride to the top of Springer Mtn
We did get to a plateau where we could take photos and see Jeff off, but Kendall and I only made it about 1/8 of the mile, I'm afraid.
 I don't know how Jeff does it, but he's been in training so he will do fine. At Christmas he weighed a slim 180, but bulked up on purpose knowing he'll lose a lot of weight on the hike.  A week's worth of his food fits in a shoebox.  I'm curious to see if it's enough.  It wouldn't be for me, that's for sure, either in diversity or quantity.  But I've heard AT hikers are a different breed and Jeff has been in that club ever since his teens.  I'm an advocate for the development of the individual to the very core of their existence and the extreme fringes of their capabilities and Jeff is one of those people who comes by such a lifestyle naturally.  Or at least he makes it appear that way.
Zach Davis' Inspiration and my personal confession time - So now I must admit, I've been frantic since Jeff left although I was only excited before he left.  So to stay sane I read lots of blogs and found one, which while not altogether soothing, is funny, irreverent, honest and psychological.  The Good Badger's Appalachian Blog is what inspired me to start my own blog - as both my personal therapy and a catalog Jeff's experience since he may not get to blog or You Tube.  Zach Davis, author of  Appalachian Trials,  has a unique psychological approach which got me and I can't wait to receive his book from Amazon.